Boys Will Be Boys
by Queenster
Summary: Future fic. One shot. Castle and Beckett's son gets in trouble at school. Fluff. Got some inspiration from 6x15.


Today was a slow day at the twelfth precinct. There weren't any new cases. Detective Beckett had just finished a ton of paper work and was in need of a break. She heard her phone ring and by looking at the caller ID she knew that the call would not be good news.

"Beckett." The detective answered her phone.  
"Good afternoon Mrs. Castle. I am Principal Thomas Williams from Fairview Prep. I'm calling about your son Zachary. He got into some trouble today in the cafeteria. Since this isn't the first time this has occurred, we would like to talk to you and your husband immediately."  
The detective let out a small sigh and said, "Yes of course. I will try to be there as fast as I can." Then she hung up the phone.  
She turned over to Esposito and Ryan.  
"Hey boys! You mind covering for me? Zach's in the principal office again." She told them.  
"Yeah no problem. Go ahead." Ryan told her.  
"Thanks! I'll just go tell Gates."  
After telling the captain about where she needed to go, she grabbed her badge and gun off her desk and made her way to the elevator. She took out her phone again to call Castle.  
"Hey." Castle answered the phone. Kate could hear the sound of keys clicking in the background, so he must be writing.  
"Zach's in the principal's office again. He said that he needs to see us at his school." Kate told him.  
"Alright. I'll just finish this sentence and I will be over there in 20 minutes. Love you. Bye."  
"Always. Bye." She replied.  
She got into her police cruiser and made her way to the school.

Zachary was a good kid. He got above average grades but he definitely followed in his father's footsteps. He was the class clown. In his first semester of this year alone, she had already met with the principal on 3 different occasions. Once for starting a water balloon fight, the next for putting fake bugs into the school lunch and the last time for wrapping an entire classroom in aluminum foil. Luckily he only got suspended for a few days. Also it helped that Castle donates a more than generous amount of money to the school. Regardless, he is only in his second semester now and this is the fourth time Beckett had to take time off work to go to his school.

She got to the school and made her way up the stairs to the front door. She walked down the hallway to see a bunch of the students looking at her. It might have had something to do with the police issued gun and badge on the side of her hip. She went up to the chairs in front of the principals office. Castle was already there, playing some new game he downloaded on his iPhone.

"Hey." She said as she leaned against the wall with her arms crossed.  
"Hey, how was your day?"  
"Did a lot of paper work." She replied, "You?"  
"I wrote 3 chapters of the new Nikki Heat."  
"So that means that I won't be getting a call from Gina to say that you're in trouble? "  
"Nope. One call is enough for today. Do you know what this is about?"  
"No. You tell me. He's your child."  
"Oh so just because he's in trouble, he suddenly becomes my child."

"You're the one that pulls all those pranks." Kate told him.

Castle grinned.  
"A-hem." The secretary interrupted the couple as she opened the door, "Mr. and Mrs. Castle. principal Williams will see you now."  
They walked into the office.

"Hi mom. Hi dad." Zachary said as he stared at the floor.  
"Hi principal Williams. What did Zachary do this time?" Kate asked.  
"Why don't you tell your parents Zachary?"  
"I, um, I punched Brent...in the face." Zach mumbled  
"What?!" Beckett exclaimed. Zach could already tell that his mom was angry from the face that she was giving him.  
Castle bent down to whisper into his son's ear. "Good. Your mom was blaming me for this meeting. As long as you didn't pull another prank."  
Castle said that a little too loud. He received a slight jab to his ribs from the woman standing next to him and one of her famous eye rolls.  
"Sorry." Castle told her.  
"To my defense, the guy was hitting on Sarah. She told me that he was being creepy. So I walked up to him to tell him to stop. When he didn't I punched him." Zach explained. "Uncle Ryan told me to protect Sarah!"  
Beckett looked at him and gave a slight hum. No one was sure if that sound was in agreement with him or not.  
"Have you talked to the boy that was hit, principal Williams?" Kate asked.  
"Yes but he did not tell me this." The principal replied.  
"How about Sarah Ryan?" Castle asked him.  
"No I haven't. We will talk to her and see do what we see fit. You see Mr. and Mrs. Castle, Zachary did punch someone. This means he will get at least a 2 day suspension."  
"Yes I understand. Do you mind if I could talk to Sarah Grace?" Kate asked the principal.  
"Yes sure I'll call her teacher to get her out of class."  
Kate looked at her boys and said, "Castle, why don't you sit with Zach outside? And make a call to Ryan? Tell him not to worry, he can stay at the precinct and I'll tell him what happened when I get back."

Sarah Grace was 2 years older than Zachary. She was pretty much an older sister to Zach. Just as siblings would do, they would argue but they would always protect each other. Whether it was from falling off the monkey bars when they were 5 or when some weird guy would hit on her when she was 15. They always had each other's back, just like their parents.

"Hi Aunt Katie. principal Williams." Sarah said while walking into the office.  
"Sarah, have a seat. We would like to talk to you about what happened in the cafeteria earlier today." The principal told her.  
"What happened?" Kate asked her.  
"Well a couple days ago, Brent asked me out but I had too much homework and refused to go. He asked a few more times but I still said no. I told Zach about it. Today, Brent tried to ask me out again. After I said no, he started a rumour that we slept together. Zach probably heard about it and confronted him." Sarah truthfully told the adults. Kate had her hand on Sarah's knee, comforting her.  
"I see. I will talk to Brent. He will most likely be suspended if not expelled. Have a good day Mrs. Castle. Sarah."  
The two of then left the office to sit down with Castle and Zach, which were sitting on the chairs.  
"Are you okay?" Kate asked Sarah.  
"Yeah I'm fine. So you're going to tell my dad?"  
"Do you want me to?"  
"If it's alright, can I tell him?"  
"Of course sweetie."  
"I'm going back to class. Bye Aunt Katie and Uncle Rick. Bye Zach."  
"Bye" they all said in unison.

They walked to the car.  
"Am I going to be grounded?" Zach asked his parents. Usually after visits to the principal office, he would be grounded for at least 2 weeks.  
"Considering everything I've heard, no." Kate told her son.  
"Yay! Thanks mom." Zach said kissing her cheek.  
"Hey buddy, good job on what you did there." Castle told him.  
"Except for the violence." Kate replied, "You probably could have done something else besides punching the kid."  
"The next time he hits someone. I'm blaming you." Castle told Beckett lightly.  
Kate slapped him on his chest. "I am sure that there is a higher possibility that he will pull another prank then punch someone, Castle." Kate told him and looked back at Zach, "I am not encouraging you to do any of those things."  
Zach was laughing in the back seat. "Yeah, sure mom."  
"Boys will be boys." Castle replied and laughed as they drove home.


End file.
